Dougie Freedman hailed the contribution of Chris Eagles after the winger inspired Bolton to a 2-1 victory over Blackburn.

Dougie Freedman hailed the contribution of Chris Eagles after the winger inspired Bolton to a 2-1 victory over Blackburn.

Former Burnley man Eagles silenced boos from the home crowd when he delicately played in Kevin Davies to open the scoring after 93 seconds.

The 27-year-old combined superbly with Jacob Butterfield and Lee Chung-Yong in a lively attacking midfield trio that led Rovers a merry dance in the first half.

Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson thwarted Eagles from long range on a number of occasions but when the ex-England international turned his free-kick onto the post in the 61st minute Lee was on hand to make it 2-0.

Jordan Rhodes nodded home to reduce the arrears eight minutes from time but Freedman deserved the luxury of basking in Eagles' contribution when addressing the post-match press conference.

"He's been performing very well - let's not tell him that, knowing Chris," joked Freedman when asked about his star man.

"He's a good guy, he's a fine football player who's still getting better.

"It's up to me and my staff to try and put on sessions that test them every day and he is one that's certainly responding to training every day.

"Of course he can get better, there's a lot more to come. He has huge potential.

"His apprenticeship was at Man United, he's played in the Premier League.

"There's a lot more to come from Chris Eagles and I don't mind telling him that."

Bolton are unbeaten in six games under Freedman and the former Crystal Palace chief labelled this as their finest display since he succeeded Owen Coyle at the Reebok Stadium.

"That's been the best performance in terms of all-round performance," he said after seeing a run of four consecutive draws come to an end.

"I think we've actually played decent at Blackpool but I think as an all-round performance - defending very well at the end and our passing and moving, we played quite expansively with two wingers and I felt that we created opportunities.

"But I've been seeing it at the training ground. The lads have been working terrifically well, they've really responded to the methods."